[Depression and crime. Review of the literature and original cases]. After mentioning the classical studies of Freud, Fenichel, De Greeff and Lagache, the author reviews contemporary works on the following relationships: depression-homicide; murder-suicide. Two cases of familial murder committed during a state of depression are then studied in depth. Two remarks from previous analyses are then made: the underestimation of the factor of depression in the homicidal act; and the need for reforming the practice of penal psychiatric survey. The author concludes that depressive and suicidal tendencies should be included among the best predictors of psychiatric dangerousness. Published in Annales medico-psychologiques (1991)

A murder–suicide is an act where an individual intentionally kills one or more people, before or while also killing themselves. The suicide may be in A murder–suicide is an act where an individual intentionally kills one or more people, before or while also killing themselves. The suicide may be in response to the guilt one feels for the murder, or to avoid potential punishments, such as imprisonment. Some forms of murder also inherently entail suicide; such as suicide attacks, or when the operator of an aircraft with passengers deliberately cr According to psychiatrist Karl A. Menninger, murder and suicide are interchangeable acts – suicide sometimes forestalling murder, and vice versa. Following Freudian logic, severe repression of natural instincts due to early childhood abuse may lead the death instinct to emerge in a twisted form. The cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, whose theories on the human notion of death are strongly influenced by Freud, views the fear of death as a universal phenomenon, a fear repressed in the unconscious and of which people are largely unaware. This fear can move individuals toward heroism, but also to scapegoating. Failed attempts to achieve heroism, according to this view, can lead to mental illness and/or antisocial behavior. In a study specifically related to murder–suicide, Milton Rosenbaum (1990) discovered the murder–suicide perpetrators to be vastly different from perpetrators of homicide alone. Whereas murderer–suicides were found to be highly depressed and overwhelmingly men, other murderers were not generally depressed and more likely to include women in their ranks. In the U.S. the overwhelming number of cases are male-on-female. Around one-third of partner homicides end in the suicide of the perpetrator. From national and international data and interviews with family members of murder–suicide perpetrators, the following are the key predictors of murder–suicide: a history of substance abuse, the male partner some years older than the female partner, a break-up or pending break-up, a history of battering, and suicidal contemplation by the perpetrator. Though there is no national tracking system for murder–suicides in the United States, medical studies into the phenomenon estimate between 1,000 and 1,500 deaths per year in the US, with the majority occurring between spouses or intimate partners and the vast majority of the perpetrators being male. Depression, marital or/and financial problems, and other problems are generally motivators. Homicides which are later followed by suicide often make headline news; national statistics indicate 5% of all homicidal deaths are caused by murder–suicides. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for… In…